Digital Trends: Optical HD Battle May Be Over: HD DVD Wins (1 Viewer)

[RAF]

As usually happens, which format wins often has nothing to do with technical superiority. I was a BETA user (still have a working EDBeta unit in the house!) but, as we all know VHS ended up with market share. It is generally conceded that BETA is a better format, technologically than VHS (smaller case, better treatment of the tape in the machine - less wear and tear, etc. etc. etc.) but that didn't mean a thing in the end. There wasn't a vast advantage of one format over the other to the average comsumer.

Plain and simple, the way that the two were marketed at all levels finally did Beta in. I had a good friend who was an appliance salesman at the time and he explained it simply. Sony kept the dealer cost of BETA machines very high when compared to VHS units. For example, sales people in the late 70's generally were able to make about $25 commission on a Beta unit (unless the customer really didn't know anything about comparative shopping) whereas the average commission on a VHS machine was closer to $125 or more. Obviously, if a new customer walked into the store looking to buy his/her first VCR they would be pushed toward the product that gave the salesman the better commission. From there it snowballed - even though BETA started in the lead, it wasn't too long before VHS units surpassed it. More units made for more requests for the VHS version at the video store. Soon BETA movies were ordered in smaller quantities and consumers found out that if they wanted the "hot" rentals they had a better chance of finding a VHS copy.

Marketing, not technology - unless the superiority of one format is obvious to everybody. To most consumers a tape is a tape.

Here we go again. New players - but similar scenarios.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

The Sanyo Beta Hi Fi unit(which was a rebadged Sony) was my introduction to the world of home theater. Betamax was a great little format!

 

[Tim Glover]

My college roommate had a Betamax back in 1983. Had some old karate type movies he brought along too. We were kind and watched them with him...a little.

 

[LarryH]

Wow! The thing is CED was TERRIBLE. The disks skipped and had video breakup and streaks continuously. This really was a case of the inferior format losing out.

Of course there were many problems with laserdisk (crosstalk, warpage, etc.) but Pioneer did eventually develop players that mostly overcame them and ended up with a viable product.

Of course HD-DVD is apprently still plagued with freezes and sound-sync loss. I haven't heard if the 2nd generation players have solved these.

Blu-Ray's main problem seems to be price. Aside from the Samsung foul-up and the poor early Sony releases.

Anyhow, if HD-DVD doesn't get moving on releases, the war may go the other way.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Absolutely, but it was also CHEAP. RCA was banking on that as their advantage. The players were cheap, and so were the discs, and that was supposed to get them market-share. The thing is, all the people who were interested in cheap, low-picture-quality, monaural video (there were stereo discs, but most of the players were mono — it was cheaper) were renting tapes. LaserDisc succeeded, to the extent that it did, because the people who were going to buy were willing to pay the premium for the best-quality copy, and it was still cheaper than buying tapes ; but it never became a mass-market product in the US. The Asian market was very different, of course.

 

[Dave Moritz]

With Universal not making any anouncments regaurding new HD-DVD titles. And with no new companies joining the HD-DVD format. Not to mention that no new studios have jumped on the HD-DVD format ether. I am more likely to belive that HD-DVD is like a boat that is slowly taking on water. Even though it has it supporters that are happy with the format. HD-DVD needs to make some changes if it wants to survive this format war. I see more titles that are Blu-ray only than HD-DVD only. I also see alot more titles in general for Bluray vs HD-DVD. While I will be buying more Bluray titles than HD-DVD, I will still be buying HD-DVD titles. I will for sure be buying the Bluray titles that offer DTS-HD. For titles that do not I will buy them on HD-DVD if and only if there is a Dolby True HD track.

Right now I feel the tide has shifted in Sony's favor, they have more titles coming out and more choices on hardware. And I also believe that prices on Bluray players will start to come down in price this year. This may or may not be over by the end of the year. But I do not see it being over in the next few months and Toshiba is by no means close to victory IMHO.